Coop's Corner: An Iowa Exploration

Saturday, July 5, 2014

An Iowa Exploration

Iowa

I grew up around many people that used to pronounce it ....I oh Way . I've always used .....I oh wah .....which I have to believe is the more preferred pronunciation. Those memories were on my mind today as I rode past miles and miles of corn, soybeans and confinement-kept hogs. I had to wonder that since these people I knew were from the Depression era, possibly they saw those perfect vowels and by golly didn't want to waste them.

Unlike most of my "Morning's Of Departure" I was in no hurry this morning to get going. We were up late last night after another (no rain) fireworks show in Lake City. We have enough experience after all of these years to get just the right location for our blanket for the perfect window of viewing. Lake Pepin beyond the sailboats, our adjacent Wisconsin bluffs across the river/lake.

I planned an easy, low mileage day so there was really no need to make my destination by 10AM which I easily could have done, by noon certainly. I'm in Marshalltown, Iowa this evening, my goal for the first half of the week will be to explore Iowa's Byways, at least those on the eastern side of the state. By Wednesday evening I'll be in Elkader, Iowa for the National Moto Guzzi Rally. There are 6 Byways in the eastern part of the state, the 2 in the northeastern corner have been explored, at least in part, by me in the past so I may only visit the sections I've not seen before while the Rally is in session. That will depend on time, weather, which of my friends show up, the schedule, etc.

Just outside of Fountain, MN this morning. I have almost no basis from which to argue with this sentiment......

Along Iowa #9 today, I met many (for rural Iowa) vehicles with bicycle racks on their backs and all that I could think of was RAGBRAI. Those of you that bicycle in groups may know all about this. I've got friends that have participated and I have seen the race referenced in film. For the record, I saw no bicycles being ridden, only pedal bikes doing the riding.

South of Chester......rows of these units stretch for miles.

I didn't ride this one today....but I sure could have!

Besides all of the info I learn from various maps (the Big G, Mapquest, state paper maps), online searches from various sources, suggestions from friends, trip reports, etc. this week I stumbled upon something new to me .....Roadtrippers.Com. I input a rough idea of my planned Route, then looked for items of interest within an adjustable width from my path. I'll be visiting some of the discoveries later on this week but today's adventure involved hunting down the easily accessible Barn Quilts of Butler County.

"Memories Never Fade"

I used roads like these........I'm a huge fan of riding these back roads. If there's even a trace of doubt, Iowa raises a LOT of corn and soybeans! Here you can see trees......and buildings. There were many panoramic views today that included neither, only oceans of soybeans and corn.

"Carpenters Wheel"

"Martha Washington Star"

"Flying Squares"

A tractor collection on display; this was the third I'd seen but only the first I'd stopped for. The first example was incredible, all Internationals, from old to new, large to small. Way more, I mean waaaayyy more tractors than I have motorcycles. It seemed they went on for almost a 1/4 section (1/2 mile).

This much smaller collection one of mixed brands......

Tomorrow my first Byway, not so many Miles, lotsa Smiles!

6 comments:

SonjaMJuly 6, 2014 at 4:50 AM
Coop, most of the barns are photogenic by themselves but with those barn quilts they look even prettier.

Little did I know about Iowa but your blog entry had piqued my curiosity, so I went on Wikipedia and I have a clearer picture now. Thanks for that.
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TrobairitzJuly 6, 2014 at 9:56 AM
A fun day out. Those barn quilts are really neat. I'll be looking forward to more pictures from your trip.

I actually know what the RAGBRAI is, but only because one of our friends is heading back home to Iowa to participate. She has been training for a while now. I admit I had to google it the first time she mentioned it on facebook though.
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DebJuly 6, 2014 at 6:46 PM
Coop-
You live in my kind of world-open primitive back roads and Lake Pepin! Boy would I love to ride in this area!

We also have a "Quilt Barn Trail" out in the county in which I so blissfully dwelt in times past. Small world. I just love them!

Did you see "Pepie"? :=)
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Others say....

"it was auspicious to approach any situation from a deferential, inquisitive place. Conceding that there is much to learn is the best blueprint for discovering something new." ----B. Fuller

The Man straightened stiffly above the block of salt fixed to the stake and looked at the young cattle ringed about him. The pasture was holding out well and the stock was looking good. This bunch would be ready to sell in another month, maybe sooner if the market was right.

A stir among the cattle down near the river brought him round to face the swinging bridge he'd built years before. Someone was coming toward him from the bridge. Someone in breeches, but it didn't look like a man, somehow. What was a woman doing in his pasture this time of night?

He bent over the salt again; maybe if he paid her no heed she'd go on past and let him mind his own business. He heard her footsteps come nearer and stop. "Good evening," she said.

Her voice was smooth with book learning but friendlier than most, and somehow almost shy. When he made no answer she went on, "I've been sitting on your swinging bridge....I thought I'd like to say thank-you...." Her voice stumbled a little, then she tried once more.

"You are Mr. ____". His name sounded strange in her voice, but she went on to tell her own.

"That's what they've called me the last sixty-eight years," he said, looking past her face to the hills fast darkening under a single star. "I reckon the woods are free for those that like to walk there."

The unfamiliar voice laughed a little. "That's what Emerson said: the grove belongs to the man who walks in it with an open heart....On that basis I guess I've owned part of your woods for a good many years.....". She made a final effort. "I've always wanted to thank you....."

Something deeply hidden stirred in him. "There's a stump up there, in the notch of the woods", he said slowly, "that before the timber grew so tall you could stand on it and see all over this country."

He kept still a minute, remembering, then, "I used to stand up there an' look at things, an' wonder how they come to be like they was, an' how the hills was created, an' all the things in Nature.... I told my wife I guessed all the religion I ever had I got standin' on that old stump, a-wonderin'..." He turned his face away from her.

She helped him out. "I know about that, a little. This afternoon I saw......." Her account of a thing she had really taken time to look at eased him, and he answered with telling of the badger den at the foot of the swinging bridge.

When she had gone, he turned to watch her. After a moment she stood clear and unmoving against the sky. You could hear the sounds of the river where she stood. She was one that could stand still long enough, he thought, really to hear what a body was saying, or a river.

Then she walked down the farther side of the slope and was gone. ------Margaret Snyder from A Chosen Valley

Fall was the end of harvest, end of the growing season, a burst of color and sun-warmth before killing frost turned the land gray and cold. Fall was a moody time, full of both life and death, a time when we were reminded of the power outside of us, reminded that the seasons happen to us. We do not invite the change to come.-------Ben Logan, from The Land Remembers

When you get those rare moments of clarity, those flashes when the universe makes sense, you try desperately to hold onto them. They are the lifeboats for the darker times, when the vastness of it all, the incomprehensible nature of life is completely elusive. So the question becomes or should have been all along, what would you do if you knew you only had one day, or one week, or one month to live. What lifeboat would you grab onto? What secret would you tell? What band would you see? What person would you declare your love to? What wish would you fulfill? What exotic locale would you fly to for coffee? What book would you write? ------- Ben Tyler

We were also cautioned about journeying far from home. As an example of the dangers, the town had a badly crippled lady named Lucy, who as a girl had traveled to New York City. As she traveled along a sidewalk, sightseeing, she was struck by the outstretched hand of a suicide who had leapt from high above. Her spine had been shattered and for the rest of her life, she was to walk bent forward at the waist, tapping the sidewalk with two black canes. Whenever the subject of travel to a big city was raised, someone would say, "Just remember what happened to Miss Tripp." ---- Ted Kooser, from Local Wonders

"Steamboats are like wedding cakes without the complications...." ----Mark Twain

"It's not about having lots of money, it's about having lots of options......." -----Chris Rock

As the very proud father of three former ponytail wearers, hopefully I can get away with this....."For the past few years it's been fashionable for young women to wear ball caps and to snap the strap on the back under their ponytails. I like the looks of that, their shiny ponytails jauntily swinging, but it's hard not to think of the rear ends of horses. There's a piece of harness called the crupper that goes just under a horse's tail to keep its nose down. If the horse lifts its head to look for a way out of whatever predicament it's in, the crupper tightens and hurts the horse. But it's foolish for parents to think that a ball cap might keep a young woman from running away. Anybody can see they're made for running." ------Ted Kooser, Local Wonders

"I tell the guy's girlfriend that the only difference between the book's main character Phaedrus and myself is that I am neither brilliant, tortured or insane, she looks at my bike and there is an uncomfortable silence." --------ahendepe (a.k.a. Vermin)